Whatever happened to this Jaguar PC-Card?

[Clint Thompson]

Yeah, I was reading about all the lawsuits last night. Atari turned into a whiney patent troll after Sam took over, from what I understand / remember. So sad from a company who has made products I have loved since the 2600 days.

 

I always wondered... why JTS? I mean going from the greatest video game maker to merge with a hard drive manufacturer? One that I had never even heard of until the merger? I knew one dude who had a JTS drive afterward and it died on him a week after he defragged it 14 times in one night... (funny story about that perhaps for another time...)

 

Probably wouldn't have went that way if they weren't so strapped for cash. They had to do anything and everything to stay afloat as it was and definitely needed the cash and clearly that worked in their favor of $90-million. You're right. How JTS was even in the midst of it all doesn't make sense but they had been around for a little while. We actually had JTS listed on our RMA sheet at the PC shop I worked for back in the 90s but never used it because we never actually had or used any drives from them. They too were quick to go under shortly afterwards in 97 or 98 IIRC.

[leech]

Yeah, it was such a random thing for them to merge with JTS. Would have made much more sense if Sony or Sega or Nintendo had bought them out. Granted, it was a 'reverse merge' from all reports I saw then and now.. not even sure what that means...

 

I do remember them winning the 90m lawsuit. Though I'd always thought it was ridiculous since I'd first read it was over the 9 pin joystick port.

[Pete5125]

It was the easiest way to stay afloat another year or 2, keep as much of the lawsuit money as possible, and get the Atari name stable enough to not have to sell off assets in a fire sale. They had sunk so much money in Atari to get big licences which were needed to sell consoles. In a changing Video Game market one that was moving away from 3 to 5 man teams to make a game to needing a huge staff to draw polygons and put movie quality effects in games...that was just to face 3D0, Sega Genesis, SNES, Sega Saturn, playstation and an upcoming N64.

 

They got back in the game 2 years to late and wasted most of the time they did have with a slow release schedule of mainly lackluster titles sprinkled with the occasional blockbuster (DOOM,Wolf3d, AvsP, Iron Soldier, Tempest 2000). I would of loved the 96 release schedule to happen, NBA JAM was near arcade perfect same with Primal Rage, no reason to believe Batman and MK3 wouldn't have been plus the sports titles would of been great. But as a businessman he made the best move for the company. Atari would of spent most all the sega mone in 96 and have little to show for it. No way that they would of made it through another christmas, to many bad decissions and very bad press.

[leech]

I think what it comes down to is that if they'd been able to release it originally with the JagCD included, it probably could have done a lot better. By the time the CD was out, it was getting very lackluster support (even more so than the initial release of it). But looking back in history, it seemed that Atari at one point or another had basically pissed off most developers, and trying to get them back in the fold was far too difficult for them.

 

I find it incredible after all these years to read more about some of the deals that were floating around that didn't happen. Like Nintendo approaching Atari for distribution of the NES in the USA. One can only imagine if they'd gone through with that deal, Atari wouldn't be in the sad state it is today.

 

On that note (and probably a bit off topic) I was reading some things last night and ran into the announcement that Gamma World: Alpha Mutation was going to be published by Atari. Article was back in 2011.. whatever happened to that? Seems if you go to Atari.com now it's all about releasing old crap on mobile devices (god I hate mobile gaming. Sure a Lynx is awesome, but on cell phones it's terrible!) But from what I can see, it seems Gamma World was canceled I just can't seem to find any information on it past 2011. Too bad, it had potential to be epic in the way Fallout and Wasteland are.

 

I'd agree that the '96 line up would have been awesome, and would have pushed a lot more units out. But that really should have been right off the bat. Granted, it also seems like Atari was all about initial successes and not long term support for most things. The ST was an initial success, but like Commodore with the Amiga, they let it go to their heads and didn't think they needed to improve it as fast as they needed to. Then the Lynx came out and wasn't available as much as it should have been, so the Gameboy got a foothold, and instead of marketing the hell out of the Lynx, it just sort of got a trickle of software afterward. It could have potentially been a lot bigger.

 

I tend to think Atari had just pissed off too many retailers and developers, so they kind of dug their own grave. Which is sad because their products were always fantastic.

[BillLoguidice]

I find it incredible after all these years to read more about some of the deals that were floating around that didn't happen. Like Nintendo approaching Atari for distribution of the NES in the USA. One can only imagine if they'd gone through with that deal, Atari wouldn't be in the sad state it is today.

 

 

One could easily argue that Atari would have mishandled the NES and we wouldn't have had the same positive outcome. Nintendo's outsider status (in terms of not being directly involved with a previous console in North America) was probably a big help in gaining retailer traction. There was likely too much baggage with the Atari name at that point.

 

 

I'd agree that the '96 line up would have been awesome, and would have pushed a lot more units out. But that really should have been right off the bat. Granted, it also seems like Atari was all about initial successes and not long term support for most things. The ST was an initial success, but like Commodore with the Amiga, they let it go to their heads and didn't think they needed to improve it as fast as they needed to. Then the Lynx came out and wasn't available as much as it should have been, so the Gameboy got a foothold, and instead of marketing the hell out of the Lynx, it just sort of got a trickle of software afterward. It could have potentially been a lot bigger.

 

I tend to think Atari had just pissed off too many retailers and developers, so they kind of dug their own grave. Which is sad because their products were always fantastic.

 

I don't think the hypothetical 96 line-up would have made a lick of difference for Jaguar sales. They would have trickled along just like they were the previous two years. Seriously, why would someone buy a Jaguar in 1996 - even with the addition of a couple of new "big" titles - when they could have a state-of-the-art PlayStation, or, as an alternative, Sega Saturn?

 

Also, the Lynx had a technological advantage, but was less portable and more costly. Nintendo had a game advantage with the GameBoy, particularly with the Tetris killer app, that Atari simply could never have an answer to. There was really no other scenario for Atari than a viable second place, and that vanished once Sega entered the market, who had access to far more software. It's no secret that Atari was ill-equipped on many fronts (financially, resource-wise, relationship-wise, etc.) to compete with the realities of the 1990s videogame market.

 

As for their products "always being fantastic," that's up for debate on the console side post Atari 2600, as each of the successor consoles had notable flaws that frankly shouldn't have been present.

[ilaskey]

I think Atari had two big issues towards the end. I remember talking to Darryl Still (UK Marketing) who mentioned the phrase 'Burden of history' quite a lot. This was on two levels. Partly, that they had pissed off a lot of retailers and developers over the years who wouldn't work with them but also that they had to work with the perception of Atari being a huge multinational firm when in reality it was a few small pockets of people working themselves into the ground trying to create the impression of being much bigger than they were. The marketing budgets were negligible, R&D, barely there. He was very proud of what they'd achieved with the resources available but essentially, the last few years from about 1990 were a rapid decline and no cash in the piggy bank to ride it out.

[leech]

Sad tales... They went from the fastest growing company, making huge amounts of money, to merging with a company that had nothing to do with what they previously did and then being bought for their name / IP by a French company. All within just over 20 years.

[JagChris]

I think Atari had two big issues towards the end. I remember talking to Darryl Still (UK Marketing) who mentioned the phrase 'Burden of history' quite a lot. This was on two levels. Partly, that they had pissed off a lot of retailers and developers over the years who wouldn't work with them but also that they had to work with the perception of Atari being a huge multinational firm when in reality it was a few small pockets of people working themselves into the ground trying to create the impression of being much bigger than they were. The marketing budgets were negligible, R&D, barely there. He was very proud of what they'd achieved with the resources available but essentially, the last few years from about 1990 were a rapid decline and no cash in the piggy bank to ride it out.

R&D for the Jag seemed to largely consist of just Eric Smith who also did triple duty as outreach and R&D for the Jag II.

 

I mean they couldn't have gotten him a fuggin intern or something?

Edited January 27, 2017 by JagChris

[atarian63]

1. Atari didnt need nintendo when the offer was made 7800 was in the pipe and like I have said before, Nintendo was not an instant success, all hindsight now. The 86 early release in the us was lousy, people would ask, whats a nintendo, and also ask about the still on hold Atari 7800. The NES units we brought in for Christmas 86 from NewYork sold ZERO for us, People kind of liked Duck Hunt but did not like or understand the stupid rob.We had to dump them at a loss in February. Had Atari stayed the course and not Broken up , it would probably have been much different. Sure there will be those who were not in the industry at the time who tainted by the the view they have of a succesful nintendo they saw growing up would disagree,however At the time and place where it all was going on, there was no sure thing on Nintendo, Atari broke up and it was open season to pickup the pieces, had they not people may still be asking today as at the time, "whats a nintendo?".

Edited January 27, 2017 by atarian63

[leech]

Yeah, I don't think it was until the next year that we had gotten our Sega Master System, and we had gone from an Atari house to a Sega one. I never was much of a Nintendo fan.

[Pete5125]

in the late 80's to be an Atari 7800 family, when everyone had a NES and then a few others had Sega Master System, keep in mind every Video Rental store had NES Games, NES was everywhere, from cereal to cartoons, etc.

 

The only games you could find was either old bargain bin 2600 games or 7800 games that were just flashier versions of the Galaga, Missile Command that you had already played to death on the 2600, or had 5 copies of since every family member that found out you still had one of those things would give you a box full of old cartridges laying around in the garage.

 

The good news was every Flea Market was filled with old 2600 carts you could get for a $1 each, the bad news was showing off the system to your buddies would always get you laughed at, as you claimed it could do anything NES could do yet you didnt have any game that was as good as the pack in Mario/Duck Hunt.

 

Good old Atari

[leech]

I remember very well the Atari 7800 advertisements, and how it had 2600 compatibility built into it. I think by that time we'd sold off all of our 2600 library, and probably already had our SMS. But I never knew anyone who actually had a 7800. Sad that it had competitive hardware.. too late.

[82-T/A]

I remember very well the Atari 7800 advertisements, and how it had 2600 compatibility built into it. I think by that time we'd sold off all of our 2600 library, and probably already had our SMS. But I never knew anyone who actually had a 7800. Sad that it had competitive hardware.. too late.

 

 

Yeah, I forget the history... but I think they released it sort of... "half assed" and then after a few months, pulled the entire system. Then when the NES or something came out, they released it again, but it was already practically orphaned.

 

 

My brother got an Atari 5200 back in the day when I was a little kid, and we were so excited. Hard to imagine but the graphics and sound from the 5200 seemed worlds better than the 2600 when we'd play PacMan (the pack-in game if I recall). I was devastated when we tried to play it and the joysticks were broken... literally from day-1. My parents returned it, and never got a new one.

haha...